123 cranmercurate

Cranmer's Curate says farewell to the youth group. It has been an honour to serve you these past six years, particularly those members committed to loving and serving the Body of Christ meeting in local churches.
After all, the fellowship of believers in the Lord Jesus Christ meeting regularly and locally is the most significant gathering of people anywhere in the world. As the Apostle Paul put it in Ephesians 3, the church is the people through whom 'the manifold...

Precious Angel, probably the best song on Bob Dylan's 1979 album Slow Train Coming, is so refreshing for its spiritual clarity in these days of watered-down Christianity. Your curate first listened to it shortly after he became a Christian in 1983 and...

For busy pastors who want to get better educated about Islamist extremism, Martin Amis's 2008 book, The Second Plane, September 11: 2001-2007 (Jonathan Cape, 208 pages), is most helpful.
It is a collection of 14 pieces, two short stories and 12 essays and reviews. Mr Amis, who describes himself as an agnostic, is a gifted teacher. He provides useful facts about the rise of Islamist extremism in the 20th century in the course of his stimulating...

The Revd Jonathan Fletcher's review of John Stott's Right Hand - The Untold Story of Frances Whitehead by Julia Cameron raises important issues about ministry.
In his Evangelicals Now piece, Superb Second Fiddle, Mr Fletcher writes:
In today's world - even in Christian circles - all seem to 'big themselves up'. So a secretary becomes a 'Personal Assistant' (or PA), even curates have to be 'Minister for Families', or 'for Youth'. Rarely are they told these days that their task is...